Topic: PC Gaming

I'd played the Mass Effect trilogy on GamePass while I had an XB1 S, @Pizzamorg .... But controller support for the PC version was iffy, so I was happy to buy Legendary Edition just for that

I think the only PC games I played that released this year would be Alba: a Wildlife Adventure, Fatal Frame V, & Tales of Arise. Amongst those I'd definitely say Arise is my favorite, great JRPG.

Though I want to give an honorable mention to Microsoft Flight Simulator. It didn't release this year, but it provided one of those truly "wow" moments I don't get in gaming often anymore. Truly the ultimate open world experience, with the ability to go anywhere in the world. Words can't describe how cool it was to be able to take off from the small military airport just outside of my no-name Midwestern city and easily be able to locate my highschool & house recreated in game.

Anyone here played Severance Blade of Darkness?

The game is basically Dark Souls in 2001.

One of the best PC game ever created

And I just found out that it is on Steam and GoG since October 2021 so everyone can experience it!

https://www.gog.com/game/blade_of_darkness

Ah, that's one I picked up in some sale on Steam, @Zuljaras .... Not got around to playing it yet, though!

I got a free month of Xbox Game Pass with my new laptop.
I wonder if there's any games worth downloading on there.

@TommyTendo What genres do you like?

I highly recommend Psychonauts 2.

@Buizel JRPG, RPG, Action, Platformers, FPS to an extent, horror, fantasy etc.

I'll check it out

@TommyTendo Great, very similar to my tastes on the surface then!

I also recommend checking out Control (great third person shooter/action game with Metroidvania elements) and the Yakuza series (story-driven action/beat-em-up with RPG elements; 0 is the usual recommended starting point but Like A Dragon is a fine entry point and is a turn-based RPG).

I personally have also used Game Pass as a platform for experimenting with indie games before ultimately buying them on the Switch.

@TommyTendo If you've only got a month then I personally wouldn't bother starting any long RPGs if you've no intention of keeping the sub going - might not be able to finish them in time.

As @Buizel says, depends how you want to use the sub - could try out some stuff that's on Switch to see if it's something you'd want to buy or go for something you might not normally have access to. Recently finished The Gunk which was pretty good. Also recommend A Plague Tale, which I thought was fantastic.

A couple of the earlier Yakuza games have actually just left the service - including Yakuza 0 - so won't be able to start at the begining if you go for those.

So God of War on PC is getting insanely high reviews, much like it did on PS4 all those years ago.

I wonder what this means for GOTY conversations. It is technically new on PC, but not a new game. And potentially with how it is currently rating, there may be no other games that rate that high for the whole year or even only a handful that are equal/higher or even close.

Started God of War on Steam.... So far, chopped a tree down, took it home & hunted deer but I'm sure there'll be proper action soon

I tried playing God of War on a keyboard and mouse and it is rough. It is clearly designed for controller, so that is what I'll do (an Xbox controller). Maybe unsurprisingly since it was a game built for the PS4, but whatever. Likewise, as a PS4 game, maybe it should be unsurprising the PC optimisation is pretty beautiful. Game looks gorgeous, runs in high FPS rocksteady.

Tell you what is also like that? Resi Village. I finally decided to sit down and give it a proper go. Shooting still feels hella clunky as you are unloading like twenty bullets into an enemies head to kill them, enemies which move way faster than you can actually track in game but on a technical level, this game is insane. The level of detail, the fidelity and the performance shouldn't all be able to exist in this harmony like this.

I have a pretty weird relationship with Resi, as I wouldn't call myself a fan, but I've actually played a lot of the releases over the years. Maybe up until like the 2010s or something? Then I just completely fell off. I tried 7 because of all the hype, but I just found that game so frustrating. Everything was so hard to kill, but you'd die so easily, all of the annoying ass puzzles and forced stealth crap.

8 seems to have so far done away with a lot of that, enemies are absolute bullet sponges still, but I seem to always have an abundance of materials to keep my bullets/health items up, plus you just don't seem to die as easily so it feels more action focused. The sort of "trek from one end of a level, to bring an item to a door, so you can do it all over again on the other side" loop is kinda annoying, but each new door always opens to some truly wonderful location. I ain't saying Resi 7 was bad visually, it fit for the nature of the game, but in 8 the art team seem to have been given all the budget they could want to just go nuts and somehow it doesn't force the game to run like *****.

Plus, I kinda like how they seemed to have almost dropped horror entirely for more just like some bonkers superpower anime, just makes it more enjoyable to play. I love watching films like Resi 7, but I just don't find it that run to play. 8 is more like an anime ghost train and is better for it (to me).

Oh, I usually play PC games with an XBox like controller, @Pizzamorg .... RE8 was pretty good at supplying enough of everything & looks amazing

@BruceCM
I started playing for an hour.

Running at 4k 60 on High Settings using Balanced DLSS and VRR. Looks great, runs great.

But there's no PS button prompts- only Xbox. Despite having native support for the Dualsense. Such an oversight.

And, there's no mouse input. At all. Mapping gyro requires using mouse-like joystick, which isn't nearly as good. And to make matters worse, it has this weird decceleration so that fast movements result in shorter on screen travel than small movements. I don't understand why they don't enable mouse input.

And the rumble isn't HD, which is pretty disappointing given this would have been a perfect opportunity to utilize it with the native Dualsense support.

Overall a great port, but it has some issues I may wait for them to suss out before continuing further. Aiming the axe with analog sucks. And while the fake analog gyro is better than nothing, it's not ideal. I can deal with Xbox prompts, but they really need to add mouse input.

Also started MH Rise. Looks great, runs great. Just wish there was save transfers.

Dump that Logitrash and get a 360 pad.

Hope they patch all that in for you, @JaxonH .... I'm liking it quite a bit so far myself, though!

So is controller working for everyone else then? I tried a controller just now and it seemed completely *****? Insane amounts of input lag, some buttons don't seem to work at all and it seems to do some random inputs at times for no reason? And before the basic questions are asked, no, it isn't my controller.

Also, can we just appreciate how insane this game looks? I made this little gallery of four screenshots taken with DLSS at maximum (ultra performance) and it still looks better than like 99% of my library: https://postimg.cc/gallery/f059NVD

I've made a major breakthrough, and I'm here to share.

So. Let's talk... Switch Pro Controller on PC.

Many, no doubt, will have dealt with issues syncing and pairing consistently. It's a widely known problem. For this reason, I and many others have opted to not use Switch Pro controller on PC.

Well, that's all about to change. I've cracked the code.

Switch uses Bluetooth 4.0. Nowadays everything is 5.0+ And that's where the conflict arises. Switch Pro will pair on 5.0+ but won't reconnect. Here's how to solve the issue.

Buy a Plug and Play Bluetooth 4.0 adapter. Also buy a Plug and Play Bluetooth 5.1 adapter. Then buy a USB hub with buttons to activate each port on demand. Put the 4.0 dongle in one port, and the 5.1 dongle in the other.

Pair your Switch Pro with the 4.0 dongle, but pair your Dualsense, Xbox controller, etc, with the 5.1 dongle. Simply activate whichever one you're using as needed. Simple as that.

Now I can keep Bluetooth 5.1 for everything else, but still use my Switch Pro controller for Steam when I don't want to use the Dualsense (its less ergonomic, so putting hundreds of hours into MH Rise with it wasn't a very appealing notion).

But ya. That's it. If you want a recommendation for a Bluetooth Adapter that will make your Switch Pro work perfectly, here's a link. In fact, here's all the links for the whole setup

Bluetooth 4.0 Adapter

Bluetooth 5.1 Adapter

USB Switcher Hub

Nice to hear good things about God of War, definitely on my radar. I have a few too many games on my backlog on PC ATM to drop full retail on a title but (major Switch releases excluded of course). Beat Shadow of the Tomb Raider the other day, probably should finish off Ori & Batman Arkham Knight rather than jumping into Dirt Rally all the time. Kinda want to give Bioshock a spin given I never played it and it has been sitting in my Steam Library for years now.... criminal I know. After that prob Shadow of War

Was definitely worthwhile getting a second PC specifically for my TV (and migrating the 1660Ti across to it). I'm actually playing through my Steam library a bit now rather than just always going to Civ and Cities Skylines. Hopefully by the time I get around to God of War it's on sale and I can get a better GPU for cheap. At the rate I'm going that's prob likely!

I got 20% off the pre-purchase in a key site, @skywake .... Never pay 'full' price for stuff on Steam! Arkham Knight & Shadow of War are worth playing, so get on with those, lol